Known.

The sun is filtering through the trees, the air is crisp, leaves are falling, it is the perfect evening to just sit on a bench and soak it all in. The old man reaches over slowly and slips his wrinkly fingers into the hand of the woman he has loved for over 60 years. She glances at him through her thick-rimmed glasses and lets a simple smile curl up on her lips.

No need to talk, no need to explain further, he knows. With that simple smile a million feelings and emotions were conveyed. With that smile his heart is filled with joy that could only be expressed by that perfect setting God had planned for him and the love of his life that night.

Ever seen that cute old couple before? You know the one I’m talking about, the one you just want to pick up and squeeze together? The one that you wish you had a camera to capture? The couple that makes girls want to be married and 60 instantly?

I love that old couple! There is just something about them that portrays intimacy and long lasting commitment in a time when that is so rare. It is such a great picture of genuine love and affection. It is a great picture of being deeply known by someone.

They have spent sixty years figuring each other out, living life together, going through the good times and the difficult times together, making mistakes and forgiving each other, learning to trust each other, and growing more and more in love. And all of that culminates into a simple smile that instantly brings immense joy into an old heart.

Oddly, the picture of this committed couple in some ways looks very similar to the relationship between King David and God. In Psalm 139 we see this,

1O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

3You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether…

7 …Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

13For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

23Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

24And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!

Okay, let me just put this out there: God and David did not have an old-person-wrinkly-love going on. That is not what I am trying to point out here. Honestly, my first thought was about how older couples often finish each other’s sentences. Ever heard them do that? And as I read David talking about God knowing his thoughts before he said them I began to see some of the sweet similarities these two relationships shared. I began to think about how great it is to be so intimately known by someone. Ever wanted to have someone like that? Think about that relationship, maybe even now you have a relationship like that.

What a freedom to be yourself with that person. What a joy it would be to spend time with them. What a comfort and encouragement it would be just having them near.

But think for a second about how much time it took for that couple to know each other that intimately. Sixty years is a long time. We spend our earthly lives trying to know and be known by someone, when the whole time we’ve had someone who knew us even as we were being formed in our mother’s womb. God already intimately knows you!

You are deeply known. Feel good?

God knows your thoughts, your steps, your words, your ways, your body, your heart, your soul, and your mind. You are deeply known.

And He loves you with an unchangeable, unstoppable, unfathomable, everlasting love. Feel good?

So like David, turn to the One who knows you the best. Live your life trying to know Him as well as He already knows you. David was keenly aware of how well God knew him. David had an intimacy with God that few people experience, but not because it’s not available, but because most people are too busy seeking to be known by others and neglecting the One who knows them already.

So the next time you are walking through the park and see that old couple sitting side by side; think about your loving Heavenly Father and remember that you too, are intimately known. And with that knowledge, live a life of freedom and joy and intimacy with Him. Get to know God so well that a simple prayer, a simple passage, a simple reminder from Him will flood your heart with a million feelings and emotions that only a perfect setting in a park could portray.